Many of Bermuda's international companies have indicated to Government that they are here "for the long haul", Finance Minister Paula Cox said.

Speaking after last week's announcement by Accenture that it intended to leave for Ireland, Ms Cox said there was no complacency in Government's efforts to maintain Bermuda's competitive edge and that the Bermuda brand remained a "magnet" especially in the insurance industry.

Global business consultancy Accenture's announcement continued a trend which has seen others including Foster Wheeler, Tyco International, Tyco Electronics, Covidien, Warner Chilcott, Weatherford International and VistaPrint declare their intentions to move to Europe.

While none of these companies has been a major employer on the Island, the trend has raised concerns that others with more sizeable local workforces may follow suit.

Most of those redomiciling appear to be concerned about potential changes to the US tax code, as the Obama administration clamps down on tax avoidance through offshore financial centres.

"In the innumerable meetings I have held with the international business sector in recent months, I have asked very targeted and direct queries on tax-jurisdictional issues," Minister Cox told The Royal Gazette.

"These senior executives have seen the cyclical movements and the various regulatory reactions over the decades and assure me that they do not make decisions based on the immediate, nor each potential threat which may or may not transpire.

"The clear message that locally-based companies communicate to me is that they are in Bermuda for the long haul and that they want to work together with the Government in our lobbying and economic diplomacy.

"They are immensely satisfied with our stellar financial regime and are confident that we will continue to hold pride of place as a financial centre, avoiding the scandals and crises that have affected other similar jurisdictions."

Ms Cox said that while there were companies changing domicile, some of them continued to maintain offices and staff on the Island."At the same time one company is relocating some or all of its employees, other new companies are being registered here in Bermuda," she added. "Moreover, these companies have usually had plans for these relocations in motion for quite some time."

She added: "The one issue that may go unremarked up on about a well-publicised legal case is the currency and cachet of a Bermuda based insurance company our brand continues to be a magnet in myriad sectors and this will continue.

"However we will also lose some business that we would prefer to have remained there are swings and roundabouts

Ms Cox also commented on remarks made by Hans-Joachim Guenther, head of reinsurance in Europe and Asia for Bermuda-based reinsurer Endurance, who said at a conference in Switzerland that it would be "easy" for insurers to leave Bermuda if the tax advantage disappeared.

And if that happened, he expected businesses would leave the Island.

At the same conference, Flagstone chairman Mark Byrne said it was better for him to have a business card with a Swiss address than a Bermuda one when he was doing business in parts of the world like India, where the Island was not well known."The comments of Swiss resident and European resident business executives are unsurprisingly self-serving in promoting Switzerland," Ms Cox said.

"Additionally Bermuda resident executives who may promote Switzerland as safer than Bermuda are out of step with the majority view of Bermuda's insurance market leaders who view Bermuda as the platform of choice from which to launch global operations.

Some are even out of step with comments made by others within their own organisation."

The Deputy Premier added: "We understand that company executives may need to justify their decisions to their boards and shareholders but this should not be at Bermuda's expense especially when their publicly stated reasons do not stand the test of intellectual unbiased analysis of the various US legislative proposals, G20 and OECD initiatives."

Ms Cox said Government was constantly working on efforts to raise awareness of the Island's importance to the global economy, often through "meeting key people in key places" and through the Finance Ministry's work on tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs)."Our recent outreach to industry for consultation on selecting countries to enter into TIEAs has reinforced what the Ministry was already doing," Ms Cox said.

"The Ministry had our priority target list which has achieved 15 concluded TIEA negotiations to date and we have stated publicly that we are focusing on G7 and countries that are significant participants in global finance

"Prior to the recent OECD comments advising small international financial centres to not negotiate TIEAs with each other the Ministry had already taken that stance.

Additionally the fact that I proactively created a dedicated treaty negotiation unit that delivered 12 concluded TIEA negotiations well ahead of the OECD time line of late 2009 is vindication of proactively deploying the proper level of resources.

"Our new contact offices and overseas consultants on both sides of the Atlantic means that Bermuda is well placed."Bermuda as a jurisdiction and the Ministry of Finance and independent regulator -none of us are complacent.

We are expending tremendous time, energy and resources to ensure that we continue to sharpen our regulatory saw and maintain our competitive edge.

"We are not slothful and know that each time we raise the bar, other competitors look and clone form our example so the pressure is continually on us to keep our shoulders to the wheel and this we intend to do."